Cranberry Sauce

During the holidays, it's really tempting to just buy the cranberry sauce in a can and call it a day. Honestly, I agree because I get it--canned cranberry sauce is delicious! It's so sweet, the perfect gelatin consistency, and the manufacturer's are super considerate by creating the places to cut the sauce with the shape of their can. I'm joking, but I really do appreciate canned cranberry sauce for all of its middle-class glory.

However, what producers of canned cranberry sauce don't tell you is that it's incredibly easy to make your own sauce and even TASTIER than the original canned delight. All you have to do is buy a 12 ounce bag of cranberries, add some sugar and water, and boil it all together until bam, cranberry sauce! Don't believe me? Check out the recipe below.

Cranberry Sauce
The below recipe comes from the back of an Ocean Spray 12 ounce cranberry bag, but you can find other online recipes that are similar instantly.  One that I would suggest is the Cranberry Sauce recipe available at Simply Recipes.  It's very similar to the one below, only minus the spices.  YUM!

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces of cranberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup water
* cinnamon sticks (optional)
* 1 tablespoon orange peel (optional)
* 1 tablespoon nutmeg/allspice/cloves, or any combination of the three (optional)

1.) Add sugar and water to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  While heating up, whisk the ingredients together until the sugar has full dissolved.

2.) Wash and add cranberries to the water/sugar mixture.  Bring water back to a boil and reduce heat to medium for the next 10-15 minutes (or, until all of the cranberries have sufficiently "popped" open).

3.) Now, your cranberry sauce will begin to look like a thicker-jelly-based sauce.  At this point, you can add any number of ingredients because your recipe is almost complete.  I like the addition of basic fall seasonings such as cinnamon (sticks), nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, and/or cloves.  However, these ingredients are not necessary for a tasty sauce--you can leave the sauce by itself and it will certainly taste delicious.  Enjoy!